The European Parliament is set to call FIFA President Gianni Infantino for a hearing over his controversial plan to allow private investment in its competitions, which has met with furious backlash in the football world and led European football associations to threaten a boycott of the next World Cup.
A draft letter obtained by Euronews and now circulating among MEPs from all political groups is inviting Infantino to answer lawmakers' questions directly, in the spirit of "transparency and democratic accountability that FIFA has itself publicly endorsed".
The plan involves setting up a new company to run FIFA's competitions and selling stakes of up to 20 percent to external investors, among them Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared is US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
FIFA claims that all the national associations should have a chance to consider the plan in an "open and democratic" consultation, and is currently resisting calls to suspend the project coming from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).
The European Parliament’s political groups are concerned about FIFA’s project.
